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ANI[2] | New Delhi [India] June 16, 2017 Last Updated at 16:56 ISTIndia[3] on Friday announced that the first cargo flight in the Afghanistan-India[4] air corridor will get operationalised over the next couple of days.“During the Afghan[5] President Ashraf Ghani’s visit to India[6] last year, we had discussions on establishing an air freight corridor between the two countries and we are happy to announce that first flight is likely to operate in the weekend or early next week.

We are working out the details of the first flight,” Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Gopal Baglay said.

The cargo service will help increase trade between both the countries, Baglay said,”The flight will take Indian products to Afghanistan[7] and will bring Afghan[8] products to India.[9] The first flight will be from Delhi[10] to Kabul[11] and will start this weekend or next week.”The India- Afghanistan[12] air corridor project was initiated by President Ashraf Ghani in 2016.The cargo service will aim to improve landlocked Afghanistan’s connectivity to key markets abroad and boost the growth prospects of its dry fruits and carpet industries.

External Affairs Spokesperson Gopal Baglay also announced that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Portugal on 24 June and Netherlands on June 27. While PM Modi will visit United States on June 25-26. He will interact with the Indian community in Washington D.C. and also hold talks with U.S.

President Donald Trump. For the finalization of the India- Afghanistan[13] air corridor project, the MoU was signed in May between the CEOs of Ariana Airlines and Afghanistan[14] Chambers of Commerce and Industries (ACCI) in presence of Ajmal Ahmady, senior economic adviser to the President of Afghanistan[15] and officials and representatives from ACCI, MAIL MoCI and the business community.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Advertisements

First air freight corridor between India, Afghanistan to get operationalise soon

India on Friday announced that the first cargo flight in the Afghanistan-India air corridor will get operationalised over the next couple of days.”During the Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s visit to India last year, we had discussions on establishing an air freight corridor between the two countries and we are happy to announce that first flight is likely to operate in the weekend or early next week.

We are working out the details of the first flight,” Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Gopal Baglay said.The cargo service will help increase trade between both the countries, Baglay said,”The flight will take Indian products to Afghanistan and will bring Afghan products to India. The first flight will be from Delhi to Kabul and will start this weekend or next week.”The India- Afghanistan air corridor project was initiated by President Ashraf Ghani in 2016.The cargo service will aim to improve landlocked Afghanistan’s connectivity to key markets abroad and boost the growth …

India[16] on Friday announced that the first cargo flight in the Afghanistan-India[17] air corridor will get operationalised over the next couple of days.“During the Afghan[18] President Ashraf Ghani’s visit to India[19] last year, we had discussions on establishing an air freight corridor between the two countries and we are happy to announce that first flight is likely to operate in the weekend or early next week.

We are working out the details of the first flight,” Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Gopal Baglay said. The cargo service will help increase trade between both the countries, Baglay said,”The flight will take Indian products to Afghanistan[20] and will bring Afghan[21] products to India.[22] The first flight will be from Delhi[23] to Kabul[24] and will start this weekend or next week.”The India- Afghanistan[25] air corridor project was initiated by President Ashraf Ghani in 2016.

The cargo service will aim to improve landlocked Afghanistan’s connectivity to key markets abroad and boost the growth prospects of its dry fruits and carpet industries.External Affairs Spokesperson Gopal Baglay also announced that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Portugal on 24 June and Netherlands on June 27. While PM Modi will visit United States on June 25-26.

He will interact with the Indian community in Washington D.C. and also hold talks with U.S. President Donald Trump. For the finalization of the India- Afghanistan[26] air corridor project, the MoU was signed in May between the CEOs of Ariana Airlines and Afghanistan[27] Chambers of Commerce and Industries (ACCI) in presence of Ajmal Ahmady, senior economic adviser to the President of Afghanistan[28] and officials and representatives from ACCI, MAIL MoCI and the business community.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

India[29] on Friday announced that the first cargo flight in the Afghanistan-India[30] air corridor will get operationalised over the next couple of days. “During the Afghan[31] President Ashraf Ghani’s visit to India[32] last year, we had discussions on establishing an air freight corridor between the two countries and we are happy to announce that first flight is likely to operate in the weekend or early next week. We are working out the details of the first flight,” Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Gopal Baglay said.

The cargo service will help increase trade between both the countries, Baglay said,”The flight will take Indian products to Afghanistan[33] and will bring Afghan[34] products to India.[35] The first flight will be from Delhi[36] to Kabul[37] and will start this weekend or next week.” The India- Afghanistan[38] air corridor project was initiated by President Ashraf Ghani in 2016. The cargo service will aim to improve landlocked Afghanistan’s connectivity to key markets abroad and boost the growth prospects of its dry fruits and carpet industries.

External Affairs Spokesperson Gopal Baglay also announced that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Portugal on 24 June and Netherlands on June 27. While PM Modi will visit United States on June 25-26. He will interact with the Indian community in Washington D.C. and also hold talks with U.S.

President Donald Trump. For the finalization of the India- Afghanistan[39] air corridor project, the MoU was signed in May between the CEOs of Ariana Airlines and Afghanistan[40] Chambers of Commerce and Industries (ACCI) in presence of Ajmal Ahmady, senior economic adviser to the President of Afghanistan[41] and officials and representatives from ACCI, MAIL MoCI and the business community.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

Lineage Logistics has acquired European cold storage provider Partner Logistics, marking its first foray into international logistics. The acquisition provides 101m cu ft of temperature-controlled capacity, with total capacity for 500,000 pallets across six automated warehouses and one conventional warehouse in the Netherlands, Belgium and the UK. President and chief executive of Lineage Greg Lehmkuhl said the deal marked an important step in the company’s three-year effort towards developing its automation strategy.

“Our acquisition of Partner Logistics represents Lineage’s ongoing commitment to serving our customers’ global supply chains by delivering dynamic, sophisticated cold chain logistics solutions,” said Mr Lehmkuhl. “We are thrilled to welcome the Partner team and are confident their incredible industry expertise, particularly in automation, will accelerate Lineage in this area.” Since 2008, Lineage has grown through acquisitions and new construction, and offers 609m cu ft of temperature-controlled capacity in over 100 locations across the US.

The investment firm backing Lineage, Bay Grove, said the company was looking to become the world’s “most dynamic” temperature-controlled logistics company. Managing partner of Bay Grove Adam Forste said: “This expansion into Europe is a significant milestone in achieving that goal. “And the transaction also highlights our commitment to automation as a critical pillar of our growth strategy globally.”

Earlier this year, it announced plans to construct its first automated cold storage facility in Dallas/Fort Worth, and will use Partner in developing automated projects in the US and Europe. Chief executive of Partner Logistics Duco Buijze said through Lineage the company would have increased access to resources that would allow for growth and expanded capabilities. A lot of its investment has been financed through debt, although its strong operating results led ratings agency Moody’s to upgrade its investment rating for the company from negative to stable in March.

However, Moody’s also cautioned: “Lineage’s aggressive growth-oriented strategy, which involves significant investments [is] well beyond the bounds of internally generated funds [and] continues to result in an adequate liquidity profile characterised by negative-free cash flow and a reliance on external sources of financing.

“Lineage’s ongoing efforts to improve operational efficiency and execution, along with a greater focus on pricing and new business wins, have yielded positive results over the last few quarters.

The company’s ability to sustain this momentum while reducing leverage and moving towards an improved liquidity profile will be important,” it said.

References

Ship owners’ and transport workers’ associations have in a statement to the EU stressed ship owners are better served by smart digital solutions to decrease the administrative burden they face.

European Community Shipowners’ Associations (ECSA) and the European Transport Workers’ Federation (ETF) made the statement during the “EU Digital Assembly” event. European Commission, Malta and others organized the event that started on 15 June, 2017 to highlight the importance of digital shipping. ECSA represents the EU ship owners’ associations and ETF represents over 3.5 million EU transport workers.

It called on the European Commission to undertake a comprehensive revision of the Reporting Formalities Directive to ensure a ‘reporting once’ principle for regulatory burdens, and sharing of all cargo and conveyance data between governments and relevant authorities. In the statement it noted all actors need to now implement the solutions already available on the basis of harmonised datasets and formats for cargo, crew and vessel data. It said the shipping industry’s structure means it doesn’t compete in a single market and “remains hampered by endless paperwork”.

European Community Shipowners’ Associations (ECSA) and the European Transport Workers’ Federation (ETF) said: “This is to the detriment of the crew, which faces increased workload with repercussions on rest-time and job satisfaction. “It also affects the overall smooth shipping operations, especially for short sea shipping operators as they frequently call at EU ports within short time spans. “Some illustrative examples include: In port A the master has to insert the date of birth along the following instruction: DD/MM/YYYY for his crew, in the next European port he calls it has to be in the form of DD.MMM.YYYY and in a third port the format obliges to put YYYY/MM/DD.

“An excel document with 18 tab-pages to be filled in with specific codes requires hours of work in view of calling port A. Unfortunately this work cannot be re-used as for the next call a word document with different data requirements needs to be filled in and sent 72 hours in advance of the vessel’s arrival. “This results in shipping companies and crew facing increased paper work, different software requirements, a multiplicity of authorities and intermediate parties.

Procedures and requirements are not only complex but also repetitive, resulting in a loss of productivity, job satisfaction and unnecessary workload and stress for ship crews.”